28th Sunday, Year A, Psalm 23

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ²He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. ⁴ Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This Sunday’s readings are all focused around feasts and celebrations. In the first reading, from Isaiah, God gives a feast for everyone, healing them from all sorrow and suffering. In keeping with this idea, the psalm sings the praises of the divine shepherd who takes care of his flock. The 23^rd psalm is the most famous in the Psalter and greatly loved. The image of the shepherd has a long history in the Bible, notably with regard to God’s care for his people during their time in the wilderness. The psalm thus contains a reference to probably the most important episode in the Jewish people’s history, the Exodus and connects the everyday experience of an individual with God’s saving action for all the people.

The start of the psalm is a long metaphor in which God is presented as a shepherd, and the author is part of his flock. Traditionally a shepherd is associated with an entire flock, but note that in this psalm he is “my shepherd. The main theme expressed here is God’s protection for his people, which includes providing them with all they need. But we should not lose sight of the fact that a shepherd’s work could be very dangerous. David, for example, told Saul: “Whenever a lion or a bear comes and carries off a sheep… I go after it and attack it… and batter it to death” (1 Sam 17:34, 35). Sheep could wander off and finding them could take time and expose the shepherd to danger. Sometimes lambs got stranded on cliffs and needed rescuing. And, of course, one could enter a dark valley where a wild animal could lurk unseen.

Shepherds in this region usually had two tools with them: a club (or rod) to fight off wild animals and a staff (or crook) to guide the sheep where he wanted them to go. These become a metaphor here, representing how God takes care of us. Indeed, the divine shepherd leads us to a feast in his home. So the psalm ends on a wonderful outpouring of thanksgiving, celebrating all that God has done for the psalmist. Because of God’s care, the author knows “goodness and kindness.” As Christians, we see Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who guides us and takes care of us. But, as we saw in the psalm, being a shepherd is risky and can involve suffering.